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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Barr/Sheehan 2012 vs. The War Party by Cindy Sheehan

Just found out today (August
4, 2012) that Roseanne Barr and I were given the confidence and nomination of
the Peace and Freedom Party of California at the nominating convention. Even
though Roseanne is Roseanne and I have been a member of the party for almost
four years, now, the nomination wasn’t in the bag—there were some high hurdles we had to leap first and we did it (with our great, if not small, team) in less than a week!

The Peace and Freedom Party
is the only Socialist/Feminist Party with ballot status (for the time being)
here in California and many left wing parties or independents vie for the
Presidential nomination of our party—so there were originally five tickets
seeking the nod: Alexander/Mendoza of SPUSA; Anderson/Rodriguez of the newly formed Justice
Party; Durham/Lopez of the Freedom Socialist Party; Lindsay/Osorio of the Party
for Socialism and Liberation and Barr/Sheehan of the Peace and Freedom Party (I
was added to the ticket just one week ago today).

What made our nomination more and more
likely as the week wore on were two things that happened. Though Rocky Anderson had
won the PFP primary in June, the primary is non-binding and the nomination
occurs at the convention. Well, Anderson did not do the work within the party
that needed to be done to consolidate delegates in order to secure the
nomination and ballot line AND he is decidedly not a Socialist and didn’t even
endorse our candidate, Marsha Feinland, for US Senate in June. Anderson discovered that his
chances were minimal for getting the nomination and he withdrew the day the
convention began. We all wish him well.

However, the most important
thing that worked in the favor of Barr/Sheehan was the wonderful act of
solidarity that the Party for Socialism and Liberation made on the behalf of
our ticket. Peta Lindsay is only 28 and she was leading up the PSL ticket with
amazing energy, intelligence and commitment. Being only 28, though, the
California Secretary of State pulled her name off the ballot and she withdrew
her candidacy for PFP today at the convention and urged her committed delegates
and the undecided delegates to vote for Barr/Sheehan.

I spoke on behalf of the
Barr/Sheehan ticket at the candidate forum last night in the president’s slot
and took questions and gave statements and then Roseanne (who is being roasted
by Comedy Central tonight), blew into the convention today and literally blew
everyone away with her humorous, yet deep, analysis of the issues and the way
socialism can address them and help lead us to the promised land of: full
employment; Medicare for all; free education from pre-school to university;
housing as a right; a sustainable, clean environment and most of all, peace!

I had another few minutes to
speak today and I am always introduced as an "antiwar activist," but my resumé
has fleshed out a little over the years. I have been traveling the world
working with socialist organizations and, especially in Latin America,
witnessing socialist revolution at work. Being a dedicated anti-imperialist, I
have seen how the two major parties in this country are both dedicated to war,
war, and more war for profit. Looking for peace in the Democratic Party is like
looking for integrity in the Corporate Media—it’s just not there in a
significant way. All of the socialist-democratic countries I have been to not
only recognize, but are committed to the idea of national sovereignty—they
rightfully don’t want anyone messing in their countries and they return the
favor—much to the consternation of the US/British/Israeli military junta.

Because I believe it’s the
only way to peace and planetary disarmament, I am a convert to, and now an
evangelical, for socialist revolution. I have witnessed, before my eyes, the
transformation of societies from illiterate, disempowered peasantry to educated
and empowered vital members of society.

Socialism has an undeserved stigma in this
country because the capitalists surely don’t want us to know that there is a
better way of doing things and there has been a dedicated smear campaign
against socialism since at least WWII yet, I have been in the meetings
where dry Marxist jargon is bandied about and sometimes I don’t even know what
the hell they’re talking about

Roseanne and I believe that
the only way to stop this evil empire from its crimes is to relate to the
masses in a way that the jargon can’t. Roseanne is from the working-class and I
always have been and always will be. Neither one of us are very fluent in the
jargon, but we can speak the language of the worker: he/she; white/black/brown/yellow/red; Republican/Democrat/Socialist/; Christian/Muslim/Jew/atheist—we all face the same issues and we are all having the life sucked out
of us by the Evil Empire that has two heads where one looks strangely like Mitt
Romney and the other one is the spitting image of Barack Obama.

Roseanne and I
can help form the response that exhibits compassion, intelligence, justice, and
peace. Socialism can be defined as "an economic system characterized by social ownership and cooperative management of the means of production, and a political philosophy advocating such a system"but it really is just a system of
taking care of each other from cradle to grave and recognizing that we should belong to a community that cares for each other.

There have been a few people
who have been appalled by our candidacy thinking that we may "take votes away
from Obama" and "cause Romney to win" and there are responses to that one:

Barack Obama does not own
your vote.

If you care about peace,
justice and economic equality, he has not earned your vote.

If Obama loses this November
it’s because he sucks and his presidency has been a failure for the 99% and a
windfall for the 1%

Besides, historically, after the US has constantly
bounced from Democrat-Republican-Democrat-Republican-Democrat, etc., haven’t
you kind of noticed already that it really doesn’t matter very much who is
president?

It’s the cyst-em of control that needs to be overthrown and socialist revolution can do that!

Barr/Sheehan 2012 have two very important people to thank: Cat Woods, a member of the PandFP who worked so hard to get all the ducks in a row and former Georgia Congresswoman and GPUSA presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney, for keeping the dream of Roseanne for President alive.

Go to www.RoseanneforPresident2012.org for more information about the campaign.

8 comments:

The reaction I had when it was announced that you and Roseann are running was, "This is going to be interesting." I will not vote for the lesser of two evils; I want to be proud of my vote. Looking forward to your campaign and will help when I can. Take care and know you are one of my heroes.

Bravo and congratulations! Now comes the hard work! You and Roseanne have to stay upbeat and more clever than the presstitutes who will try their damnedest to marginalize you and demonize you (if they were able to do that to an icon like Nader, nobody is immune).

Humor, sticking to the big issues (but in a way that people relate to on an emotional and personal level), and painting a positive image of what we CAN have and be, is the key to staying relevant and appealing. I would also emphasize that a vote for Barr/Sheehan IS a protest vote against the cyst-em itself, that you recognize up front the corrupt and rigged nature of the elections, that this is a rejection of the War Party Uniparty Duopoly, and that unless the (s)elected winner gets more than 50% of the vote, much less 50% of the WHOLE of eligible voters (many who are so turned off they don't vote at all), that winner has NO mandate and is NOT the legitimate representative of THE PEOPLE!

What is your ticket's status in New York State? Are you seeking to get the nomination of any existing party there, or will it be a write-in campaign?

Congratulations on your nomination! It is great that California voters will have Barr/Sheehan as an option in November. How many other states do you expect to achieve ballot access in? Personally, I'm supporting Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, and working to grow the Green Party. Ultimately we will all need to work together to dismantle the corrupt and broken two-party system and establish real democracy - political and economic - in the US.

I had the pleasure of casting votes for Roseanne Barr and Cindy Sheehan yesterday at the Peace and Freedom Party convention. Since our 2008 candidate, Ralph Nader, came in third behind Obama and McCain, we are expecting great things from this dynamic duo. If you live in California, show your support by registering Peace and Freedom. If you live in another state, help put Roseanne and Cindy on the ballot. It's time for real, real change!

Please limit your comments to the content of the posts---not your self-perceived, self-righteous, personal opinions of the authors/activists who post at this blog. Personal attacks, or threats of violence will not be posted....moderator.

Peace has a day in Court Cindy Sheehan For those of you who know me and have been following my story, you know that part ...

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Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox is an independent online radio show and blog that strives to be completely free from establishment political ideology and focus on a message of peace, justice, environmental sustainability and economic equality. To this end, we provide educational and inspirational programs on topics related to these issues and we organize/promote actions working towards peace, justice, and environmental sustainability.